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Smart speakers seize the living room? Evaluation: Like a pupil who has just mastered a few skills

Want to seize the living room, who can kill the audience with smart speakers?

Reviews of mainstream products on Tmall, Xiaomi, JD, and Himalaya

What is the ultimate voice control? It is Samantha in "HER" or Joey in "Blade Runner 2049", no matter what form of expression in the movie, their high degree of anthropomorphism satisfies consumers' ultimate fantasy of smart speakers.

Overnight, the fictional facts of the science fiction world fell into reality, and the speakers at home would speak. There is a human voice and an intelligent brain, but is communication really seamless? Since Google and Amazon launched their own smart speakers, domestic manufacturers have followed them. Ali’s Tmall Genie, Xiaomi’s Xiao Ai, JD’s Dingdong, and Himalaya’s Xiaoya are the most popular smart digital products in 2017. However, a reporter from "IT Times" compared these four mainstream smart speakers and found that compared to the higher level and higher maturity of Samantha and Joey, the current smart speakers are more like a primary school student who has just mastered a few skills. , Their growth is accelerating.

Classmate Xiao Ai: Collected ten songs "Gray" and dropped eight

Experiencer: Lively Tomatoes Experience time: 5 months Tags: media female youth

I remember that the first time I met Xiao Ai was at a media tasting meeting. At that time, the staff asked a few people to experience it, and guided them to ask questions about the weather today, what time is it, and whether it’s blocked at the airport. As a result, one person The first question the man rushed up was-what should I do if I am broken in love. This unexpected "mood" made the staff sweat. Fortunately, Xiao Ai was more witty, "Come to listen to a song to ease your emotions", and then began to sing.

The first impression was good. A few months later, I had my own classmate Xiao Ai. Compared to men who love molesting, classmate Xiao Ai is more like a trivia assistant and a channel for listening to songs to me. Especially when lying on the bed and touching the phone is like finding a needle in a haystack, and Xiao Ai is very convenient to set an alarm clock, understand the weather, and listen to a book. But the most commonly used function-listening to songs is now the most frustrating. I have only collected ten songs in total, and all eight of them are grayed out (cannot be played). I'm still wondering why every time I play a collection of songs, there are always a few songs in a single loop. Due to copyright issues, from the end of 2017 to March this year, the music sector was almost silent.

Speech recognition is generally not a big problem, but the recognition rate of English is too low. For example, if you want it to play Ed Sheeran's songs, neither Ed Sheeran nor the official Chinese translation of Ed Sheeran will respond. And many results focus on music search. I asked it to count sheep, and it even played a song called "Counting Sheep". I really wanted to cry without tears.

Jingdong Dingdong 2nd generation: smart home control is the furnishings

Experiencer: TemperSzeto Experience time: 2 months Tags: male, technology industry

I am engaged in software development, so I have a better understanding of IT technology and new technology. I mainly want to use it to play music and control home appliances. Music originally wanted to complain about the lack of copyright. Before the New Year, almost nothing could be broadcast. Now Jingdong has cooperated with QQ Music and is basically satisfied.

The key point is to control smart home appliances. Dingdong is completely abolished in this regard. The two home appliances I bought in Jingdong Weilian cannot be controlled. Although there are instructions to display the switch in the App, the instructions are very long. Modification, even if you follow the instructions, you can't control home appliances. Some of the open functions of the third-party platform can be used, and some are not. The overall feeling is very tasteless, and it is not user-friendly. You can only operate according to specific instructions, which makes me very unhappy. Although the App supports self-setting questions and fixed answers, it is still not effective. In addition, Dingdong’s App has bugs from time to time, and I feel that their software development team is not as strong in hardware, at least the tests are relatively poor.

I also like that it supports voiceprint recognition. For example, when I added the voice of my wife and me, only we can control it, and it does not follow the instructions of my son, but it is strange that she can also control it without adding the voice of mother-in-law.

Tmall Elf molested as "Jingdong Elf"

Experiencer: Mr. Li Experience time: 4 months Tag: Parenting

I grabbed a Tmall wizard at the price of 199 yuan on Double Twelve. Since having it, the two children in the family have new toys, which greatly frees the hands of adults. It is used as a game to listen to instructions and play at any time. The performance of the intelligent assistant for music and answering questions is still remarkable, but the voice recognition ability and resource library are still not satisfactory.

Although the characteristic of artificial intelligence is learning and getting smarter, the voice recognition of my Tmall Genie is getting more and more "sensitive", but it is getting less and less accurate. In the beginning, the young son occasionally called him "Jingdong Elf", but he ignored it. But within a few days, the "ethics" was broken. When his son called "Jingdong Elf", it was also awakened. At first, it would be triggered once when he called it five or six times. Later, when he called Bing, Liu Qiangdong should not be able to laugh anymore.

After two months, the wake-up function of the Tmall Genie has been quite "disordered". Sometimes no one calls it, but it suddenly starts to "naturally talk to itself". In order to prevent "meowing" in the middle of the night, I have to choose it. To mute; sometimes the family chats louder, it starts to "join in the fun"; even stranger is that the son's voice is somehow "shielded", no matter how loud he calls "Tmall Elf", it doesn't Pay attention to him, which makes my son extremely depressed. When he wants to hear the story, he can only ask his mother for help.

As a speaker, the most important function is to provide sound. Music, nursery rhymes, and audio books are just needed, but from the content point of view, Tmall Elf still lacks resources. Shan Tianfang’s "Journey to the West" has only 100 episodes, and his son kept asking what happened to the four Tang monks and apprentices who came out of his daughter’s kingdom? As for shopping on Taobao with speakers, I still find it very tasteless. I don't know who the seller is and what the goods are. How can I easily place an order?

Xiaoya Speaker: Grandpa is angry

Experiencer: Platycodon grandiflorum flower medicine Experience time: one month Tag: elder

Xiaoya is not an "obedient" speaker, I feel that I compete with it every day. After only using it for a week, it probably failed to wake up seven or eight times, and the network was disconnected once or twice. The speech recognition rate feels a bit low. Not only does Mandarin fail to understand a little bit of non-standard, but sometimes the voice is quite loud and it doesn't respond, and it doesn't respond at a distance. In addition, the same words can be received on the App, but cannot be found on the speakers. For example, I want to hear Snow White, but the fairy tale Snow White is not found.

The most annoying thing is that the app’s operation demonstration process uses "Xue Kui Biography". I have called it countless times, but I can’t find the content. Grandpa is in her 80s, and she is often so angry that Xiaoya wears headphones. Listen to storytelling with the speakers at home. Xiaoya's price is not cheap, and hopes to "treat" the elderly in terms of product interaction experience.

Reporter Reviews

First time: Whose voice is more lovable?

Xiaoya>Xiaoai classmates>Dingdong>Tmall Elf

Smart speakers, smart is the modifier, and speakers are the main body. Since it is a speaker, the sound quality is a topic that cannot be avoided. However, from the experience point of view, the four speakers tested seem to be more intelligent, and the sound quality is very average. If you have to distinguish the level, Xiaoya and Dingdong are better. , The former performs well in the low frequency, the latter has outstanding high frequency performance, and the listening experience is more comfortable.

However, most users use smart speakers for conversation. Xiao Ai is a girl by default, and the voice category cannot be changed. However, the intonation is closest to human beings, and it is more comfortable to listen to. Xiaoya's tone is similar to that of Xiao Ai, her voice is younger and gentler, Tmall Elf, her voice is a bit stiff, more like a robot, and easy to play. Dingdong’s female voice is a bit "fierce", but fortunately, Dingdong has three voices to choose from, including male voices.

Second time: Whose answer is smarter?

Xiao Ai> Xiao Ya> Ding Dong> Tmall Wizard

In terms of voice recognition, these smart speakers have two major points in common. One is life service issues, such as asking about the weather, asking whether the journey to the airport is blocked, setting alarms, playing songs, and other positive issues that rarely make mistakes. The second is that English recognition is all terrible. In the process of use, each family has a slot. For example, Xiao Ai contributed a large proportion of the music search results, let her count sheep hypnotized, but played the song "Counting Sheep". Tmall Elves and Dingdong are too sensitive to the environment and often Was awakened by mistake and talked to himself. In terms of comprehension, Dingdong and Tmall elves are also lacking, such as "play children's stories", they can recognize and play, but if you say "play children's favorite stories" or "play children's favorite stories", the recognition fails. . Xiaoya, in conversations at a normal speed, often makes mistakes in recognition, and he must express carefully to improve the recognition rate.

In all kinds of molesting questions and answers, it was Xiao Ai who was able to accurately identify and respond with a relatively stable performance. Tmall Elf and Xiaoya answered some questions too honestly, such as asking "Where are you from?", the answer to both of them is "developed", while Xiao Ai is "the body is in front of you, and the soul is in the Xiaomi phone". Ding Dong's answer was, "Who knows what's going on in the future? Let's do this glass of wine first."

The third round: Whose content is more abundant?

Dingdong>Tmall Elf>Xiaoya>Little Ai

If you want to destroy a smart speaker, block its content entry. This is not a sensational slogan, but a real consumer reaction during reporter interviews. Many people are very disappointed with Xiao Ai and Dingdong speakers because of the removal of music copyrights.

A few months after the music collapsed, Xiao Ai and Dingdong Speakers respectively expressed their cooperation with QQ Music. The latter has now opened the QQ Music function. Xiaoya cooperates with Baidu Music, and the built-in Tmall Genie is Ali's Xiami Music. In terms of music library, QQ Music is better than Xiami Music and Baidu Music.

Audio books are another important section of smart speakers. Xiaoya relies on its own Himalaya FM, which has rich and stable content, but because it is a closed loop, it cannot search for content on other FM platforms. Xiao Ai has collected a number of FM content, including exclusive "Short Big Finger North", "I Have to Say Anything", etc. Tmall Genie accesses Dragonfly FM content, and Ding Dong owns Penguin FM and Himalaya FM. .

If Xiao Ai can finalize the QQ music cooperation in March, then in terms of content, Xiao Ai's family will dominate.

Fourth round: Who is the overlord of the living room in the future?

Xiao Ai> Tmall Elf> Xiao Ya> Ding Dong

A big advantage of Xiao Ai is the products that support Xiaomi’s ecological chain. The data shows that 20% of the commands that Xiao Ai calls are used to control Xiaomi’s smart home products. The products are cost-effective, user acquisition costs are low, and voice operations are very smooth, greatly The satisfaction of users related to Xiaomi is quite high. Although Tmall and Dingdong each support many smart hardware, Tmall can manipulate the brand and is not smooth, and Dingdong is difficult to control other appliances in the home successfully.

In addition to Xiaoya, the other three can all customize settings. Xiaomi has fewer permissions and is currently limited to Q&A. Although Dingdong and Tmall Genie have also opened custom Q&A, they often fail to respond and are not the answers they set themselves. In addition, Dingdong can also modify the wake word, which has become a major feature of Dingdong.

In the setting of easter eggs, Xiao Ai has a dark belly and makes many cold jokes. For example, what kind of chemical reaction does silicon and water produce? Its answer is Wang Batang. Dingdong likes to stun people and tells it "Why don't you go to heaven?" Dingdong has a high probability of mocking "Why don't you go to heaven" to remind you to lose weight. Tmall Elf is like the king of chicken soup. For example, how to treat female anchors. It says that white cats and black cats are good cats if they catch mice. Xiaoya is a flattering type, asks it "Am I cute", it says you are the cutest in my heart, and asks it, "Am I stupid", its answer is no, and the two answers of Xiaomi are "Let's Let's get along for a while." "Let's change the subject."